Gotcha Date:May 23rd 2011Birthday:April 17th 2011Coloration:Orange & White TabbyLikes:Getting rubbed under the chin or around the ears.Pet-Peeves:Getting dried off after a bath. He doesn't mind the bath, just the drying process.Favorite Toy:His blue bouncy fish. RIP bouncy fish. New fave toy is Meester Feeshie, a large, plush dolphin that The Boyfriend won at an amusement park. It's longer than Crick, and yet he'll straddle it while trying to drag it through the house.Favorite Nap Spot:The backrest of the corner section of my couch, or at my feet in bed.Favorite Food:Like Garfield, he always tries to steal my lasagna. He's also been known to snag corn off of unattended plates.Skills:Bouncing off the walls (literally). Also bouncing off of doorframes, furniture, people. Parkour is Crick's "sport".Dwells:
indoors Arrival Story:I was visiting my boyfriend's mother. Her neighbor had just had a litter of kittens, so as an early birthday present my boyfriend's mother took me to go pick 1 out. Cricket was the kitten that would cry if I tried to take away from me.Bio:At first, we thought Cricket was a girl. Much to my surprise, four months later Cricket declaired his boy-hood by cleaning himself and displaying his kitty dingaling!Lives Remaining:8 of 9Forums Motto:Sir Chirps-a-lotThe Last Forum I Posted In:Christmas TreeI've Been On Catster Since:

I see wut you did there...

Over the holidays, Momma was laid off from her job (don't worry! It was only for a few weeks, and she's back to work. She says it's a seasonal thingy), so she packed up a bag of her things, and like, 3 bags, my carrier, a couple of litter boxes, etc, for us to go stay with Gma and my uncle (who Momma calls The Kiddo). This is weird.

I'm used to Gma's smell. The Kiddo's a bit, too, since they come over to visit. The kiddo is good at chase, and hide and seek. He hides, I seek. But Gma's house smells funny. So, that took some getting used to. I mean, I had to stay at Gma's for a week in October since Momma had to go out of state for a conference thing, and no kitties allowed, but dang. Weird house. Weird house where people look at me funny for sleeping on a people bed.

Well, The Kiddo is special. He has Autism PDD-NOS (he's in that weird flux state between Aspergers and severe Autism), so he gets really nervous around me. I don't have a schedule, and he can't speak cat. Communication is sooo not happening. Momma's had me for over 2 years now, and he's just recently gotten used to petting me. He's worried that he does it wrong, and doesn't want to upset me. Coo'. I can get with that.

But then, he finally got the nerve to pick me up.

The first few times went badly for both of us. Awkward grabs from him around my tummy, claw swipes and yowls from me to his hands. Poor kid was scared to death he broke me the first time I made a funny noise. What does Momma do? Tell the kid to stop trying? Oh, no no no... She teaches him how I like to be picked up. After a couple more tries, he finally got it down. Sorta. He can get me off of the ground, he can put me down on things, but he hasn't figured out baby burp cuddles (see my picture of me and Momma for reference). And he's ADDICTED to picking me up. He walks through the room and I'm in his path? I'm getting picked up. He's bored? He hunts me down and picks me up. I'm sitting comfortably on his bed making a nest of his blanket? I get picked up and taken out of his room.

I'm proud of the kid. He's getting over his fear of me, but dear goodness graciousness. Momma had to tell him "You can only pick him up 5 times a day. And there has to be a reason for it." I was starting to tell him to put me down very loudly, but that darned autism prevents him from understanding me, and I'd rather not hurt him to get my point across.

Now to teach him that I'm only about a foot tall to his six feet, and that if I'm in his way, it is totally possible for him to step over me and not hurt me. As of right now, he just stands there, blocking my path while I block his, and it's kind of like the stand off at the OK Corral. Meowing "Dude, could you move? There's a nip mousey waiting for me, and you're keeping me from it." doesn't help. Him saying completely inappropriate things in cat is just funny. Momma timed us. Longest standstill was about 7 minutes, and the only reason it stopped was cause we were blocking her path, and she forced us out of her way. *snicker*

My momma was dating this great man, and they went over to his mom's house about a month before Momma's bday. His mom's neighbor had some cats, and two of the ladies happened to have kittens at the same time. So, his mom dragged Momma over to look at the kittens.

Well, here's a little backstory on my first "home", if you can call it that. There once was a place called "The Tiger Ranch". They claimed to be a no kill shelter, but really? They treated the cats there horribly. Dirty, smelly, no vet treatments... So the SPCA went to shut them down. Now, most of the kitties roamed "free" on the ranch, so it was hard for the nice people at the SPCA to rescue them, cause if all these strangers came in with kitty carriers, you'd get scared too, right? Right. Well, this lady, she used to work there, so she got in her car and went down to the ranch after the SPCA left for the night. Cause the cats knew her, they all came running. She put as many in her car as she could, and drove home. This was A LOT of kitties. And her home is tiny. So, she kept 4 or 5, and the rest? She let loose in the neighborhood to go feral. Poor things. Anyways...

So, Momma's sitting in the house, playing with me and my brothers and sisters, and we're having fun. I really really REALLY liked her. I'd just cuddle up on her shoulder, and if she tried to play with another kitten, I'd cry. If she tried to put me down, I'd cry and try to climb back up her. The lady and Momma's bf's mom took a look at me, declared me a female (hahaha), and we went back to her house. I was the runt of 5 kittens. The other litter only had 2 torty kittens, and the runt didn't make it. The lady wanted Momma to wait a week or two to adopt me, but BF's mom talked her into letting me go home with Momma, even though I was only 5 weeks old.

Well, Momma's bf's lil sister is friends with The Lady's daughter, so I already had an unofficial name, Emanon. No Name backwards. (They got stumped after naming 6 other kittens. I don't blame them.) So, Momma, BF, and BF's momma are all trying out names for me while playing with me in the living room. And, lo and behold, Momma spots a flea. Then another. She flips me over, much to my dismay, and finds DOZENS of fleas on my tummy. "No wonder he's so tiny! Poor thing is being eaten alive!"

So, I got my first bath. Fun times. (Insert sarcasm here) Good thing about that? 1) No more fleas 2) The only thing gentle enough available was apple scented baby shampoo, so I smelled reeeeeeeeally nummy! BF's Mom went and bought me a couple of cans of kitten milk, plus my starter supplies (a feather toy that I just recently killed, litter box, litter, kibble, and a dish). The milk was super awesome. Momma says that's why I've grown so much, since she was able to rescue me from The Lady's house at such a young age and all that.

Well, Momma and BF had a little dilemma. I didn't look like an Emanon. So, while I was playing in my room that first week getting used to not being with my siblings, and all the cool smells in this house, they were making lists of names. Momma pulled out her baby name books (including her "What NOT to Name Your Baby" book) and started hunting. That didn't work. So, they went all celebrity and started listing food, such as Quesadilla (Cause I'm orange and white), Chow Mein (BF thought it was funny... I dun get it), and then started saying dog in all the languages they knew. Apparently some of my first favorite toys were doggy tug ropes and squeaky toys, so they said I was more dog than cat. Pssh. Luckily, Momma remembered a couple of things. One was something her mom said when she was little. "If you can't pick a name, smash them all together. What do you get? Cricket." The other was the lucky cricket from Mulan. I made noises like him whenever I tried to meow. I still do. Put the two together, and you've got my name. Tada!

So, that's the story of how my Momma rescued me and I got my name. Now, I'm going to go drag my dolphin toy down the hall again. Momma moved it, and it is definitely not where it belongs.

Welp, yesterday mah momma signed me up on Catster. I can use the mouser toy great, but I'm all pads when typing, so she helpeded.
So, here's mah diary, "I see wut you did there". Earlier, Momma maded me a new nippy mouse. We played for a long time... well, until I got a lil too 'cited and accidentally swiped Momma's hand with a claw. That led her to chasing me around with my leash so she could try to give me a pawdicure.. Treats or no treats, I wasn't havin it!
Well, she went to sit on the couch under da cuddle blankie and playing with her string toys. She kept putting it on one of her hind paws. Now she's playing with it again, but with her other hind paw. It looks funny. While she was doing that, I explored my territory, making sure my toys were in the right spots. Dolphin wasn't, so I had to drag it down the hallway. Momma giggles, cause Dolphin is as long as me! Anyways, it's time to clean Momma's hands n cuddle on her chest.